The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the controversy surrounding the definition of Aravalli hills and is scheduled to hear the matter. The court had previously accepted a uniform definition and banned fresh mining leases in the area.
The Supreme Court has rejected a High-Powered Committee's request for a six-month extension to submit its report on the definition and protection of the Aravalli Hills, directing the panel to submit it by November 30. The court warned of reconstituting the committee if it fails to meet the deadline and emphasised the need for issue-specific interim reports. This decision follows a previous controversy over the Aravalli definition and mining regulations.
The Supreme Court has emphasised that the expert committee tasked with defining the Aravalli hills and ranges must consult domain experts and other stakeholders to ensure public input is heard.
Sonia Gandhi criticizes the Modi government's environmental policies, claiming they endanger the Aravalli hills and disregard environmental protection.
The Supreme Court has expressed concern over mining activities in the Aravalli hills and range, deferring any orders in favour of mining lease holders until it is fully satisfied with the environmental impact.
The Supreme Court has established a high-powered committee, chaired by Kanchan Devi, Director General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), to independently review the Centre's report on the definition and delineation of the Aravalli hill range, aiming to resolve 'critical ambiguities' in its findings.
The Supreme Court has halted Haryana's jungle safari project in the Aravalli range until experts clarify the definition of 'Aravalli range,' citing concerns about environmental protection and potential damage to the eco-fragile area.
The Supreme Court has kept in abeyance its previous verdict on the definition of the Aravalli hills and ranges and proposed a high-powered committee to examine the issue.
The Centre has rejected claims that the new definition of the Aravalli range will allow large-scale mining, asserting that 90 per cent of the region will remain protected and citing a Supreme Court-ordered freeze on new mining leases.
The land acquisition, the consolidation process in Kot and a slew of other decisions by the Haryana government to open the hills to privatisation and commercial activity run contrary to court orders, environmentalists' demand, and at times the Union government's measures to protect the Aravalli hills, say Nitin Sethi & Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav accuses the Congress of spreading misinformation regarding the new definition of the Aravallis and defends the government's commitment to protecting the mountain range while allowing limited, legal mining.
'The natural barrier that is Aravalli, you are demolishing it, then who will stop the desert?' 'In future, I predict that people will roam around with oxygen cylinders in Delhi because they won't be able to breathe.'
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Abhay S Oka said the governments must ensure that action is taken against erring officials.
Experts warn that a new government definition of the Aravali Hills, accepted by the Supreme Court, could lead to environmental degradation and expose Delhi and surrounding regions to harsher weather and drought conditions.
When agricultural holdings get fragmented over years, the state government has the power to step in and help farmers pool their land parcels for improving land productivity, after which the pooled land is divided up into larger plots. Instead of the fragments they hold, a farmer gets a single contiguous patch of an equal size. But, it is done only for agricultural holdings. In Kot village, however, the consolidation has been ordered for the entire village land, including the hilly forested commons, which are already pooled. This is not the first time that the Haryana government has attempted such a consolidation of Kot common lands.
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